Build a million dollar company this year.

I’ll admit it; I’m an information junkie. If someone has an ezine signup, or an RSS feed to his or her blog, and I see it has value, I’m in.

I scroll through a ton of information every day. And while very little of it offers brand new ideas, I’m a firm believer in the right information appears when you’re ready for it.

But after years of working on my business, I must admit the get rich schemes are circling like never before.

Everyone has the next best thing, and you’re “guaranteed” to make a million doing it. Overnight of course.

After reading yet another promise today, I got to thinking about why 99% of all people who jump on board with this type of material never succeed. Why can they get so excited up front, yet never achieve success with it? And in most cases its little or no success.

1. The dream. How many people out there are floating along without a dream? They’ve worked for years, only to lose their job in hard economic times. They can’t find another one, so they jump into a “proven way to get rich quick”. And they keep dreaming.

Every opportunity does have its success stories. But what makes them a success is they took action. They treated it like a full time career, worked at it HARD every day, and slowly saw it grow.

2. The one-day wonder. No matter how many times you hear or read it, nobody can achieve success in one day.

When you read the stories about newbies who jump on board with a new business opportunity, and make thousands or even millions in a few days, they leave the most important parts. They don’t tell you the person has been studying similar business models for years. They don’t tell you about the years of experience with other ventures. They don’t tell you about the other failures. They don’t tell you about the knowledge they’ve built up over time, and have ready in their arsenal to apply to this new venture.

3. The high expectation. If others do it, you can too. You set your expectations high, without realizing the follow through it’s going to take to get you to the same level.

While there is nothing wrong with having high expectations, without a course of action, it’s doomed for failure. Chunk it down. You have to crawl before you walk. And walk before you run. To achieve a goal in one month, what are the action steps you’ll need to get there?

Success isn’t for the lucky. It’s for those that plan out every day, and know exactly how they’re going to achieve what they’ve always dreamt of.

Are you part of the Yo-Yo generation?

The Yo-Yo generation – the “you’re on your own” generation – is the generation that will be entirely on our own to create the retirement lifestyle we’re dreaming about.

As the baby boomers continue to age and retire, their vast majority will completely do away with all the things funding today’s elder population, such as social security and Medicare. Which will leave those of us just behind the baby boomers with the opportunity to create our own financing for the lifestyle we choose to live.

Yes, that may sound a bit scary, but in my mind it really is an opportunity.

For many of today’s 60+, they grew up with the understanding they would be taken care of. They watched their parents have access to full paid retirement plans, and access to health care as they needed it. And now that they are there and needing/using it, its all falling a part.

But for those of us watching what is happening now, we know there’s a great chance it won’t be there for us – unless we plan and make sure we’ve created it for ourselves.

So my question to you is,

What are you doing to plan for the future?

Whether you have a great job you love, or are in business for yourself, what are your goals for 5 years from now? 10 years? 25 years?

In either case, creating one small income stream, having one “job”, or building one small business isn’t enough. Opportunity is everywhere, and you need to be looking for it all the time.

If you have one thing you love or are good at, use that to create an income stream. When that’s up and running, create one more.

The Internet is an amazing place to reach out and find clients that want exactly what you have to share. Let me give you an example.

Many of you know I’ve been a professional photographer for over 20 years. I “retired” from wedding photography a few years back, but a great deal of my clients and my income comes from the photography industry. I’ve always loved working with photographers, and helping them build up the business side of their studio.

Andrew and I also knew there were a ton of photographers that didn’t really want to go professional, yet simply wanted to become better at photography. So we just released a brand new program that will do exactly that – help people take better pictures!

(You can see our newest site at 9to5PhotoTips.com)

We looked at our business, and what we loved, and came up with an entirely new way to make money at it. And to share our passion, and truly help others out that can gain from our knowledge.

What do you love to do? How can you make money at it? How can you make your future brighter than ever?

image source amoor

The job loss statistics are across the board, blue and white collar jobs. And they are in such mass within segmented industries; many people are simply not going to find work in an area their background matches.

Maybe now is your time to start your own business. 

What do you love?
Chances are there is something in your life you love, and would love to do full time every day.

Maybe it’s playing chess. One of our clients has turned his passion for chess into a very lucrative business.

Or maybe it is photography. Wouldn’t it be amazing to do it on a full time basis, like many of our clients are doing?

Creating a business around what you love has never been easier, thanks to the Internet. You don’t need thousands for rent or for marketing materials. With a website and a blog, you can be off and running, controlling much of what you do every day.

Building The Business
For most people, if you no longer have a source of income, and no chance of finding a replacement because of market saturation, starting a business is your only option.

Over 100 years ago, being an entrepreneur was the majority. It was easy to set up your business anywhere, and do whatever you chose. Then as it became more acceptable to work for the corporation, it was seen as more of a risk to run your own business.

In some cases it’s still tough. You are responsible for your own benefits (retirement, healthcare, etc). But you’re also responsible for your own destiny. If you want to make money, its up to you to put the hustle in your step, and find people to pay you for your services.

And in all cases there is always help just a keystroke away. Search online for whatever you are looking for. Chances are you’ll find an expert ready to help you achieve your next goal.

Creating Connections
It doesn’t take a lot of money to make those connections. In fact, people are ignoring traditional marketing methods more each day. We record programs to avoid commercials. We listen to our iPod to avoid commercials. And we ignore most ads because they are everywhere. How can they penetrate into our mindset when we’re exposed to hundreds of ads every day?

Now is the time to build your business with connections. Using tools like blogs, Facebook and Twitter, it’s easy to reach out to hundreds of people every single day. 

On each of these channels, it’s easy to find a group of people ready to talk with you about your passion. Just do a search based on your niche. You’ll find things like Picture Social for budding photographers,  Or Chess.com a social site for chess players.

The more you connect, the more you build your expertise, the more your business will grow.

Get started today.

image source otbora

But for some people, all of this doesn’t even cross their minds. They knew it was coming. And they did something about it.

I’m talking about people that went out and started their own businesses.

It doesn’t have to be a full time career. Or even have a master plan. Instead, they simply went out, learned something new, and started making money at it.

Now if you look at a lot of the guru’s on the Internet today, they make it seem so easy to earn $40k every single month – and to be able to pick up that type of income in just a matter of months. Honestly, the one’s you read about are the exceptions – the few that saw things align perfectly, and had everything come together in just the right manner.

But even if you don’t earn an extra $40k per month, wouldn’t it be nice to know an extra $2k is coming in?

That’s one of my goals with Vision Of Success. I’m here to show you how to take your hobby and turn it into an income stream. I’ve spent the last 7 years writing information to help you get started with your business planning, and helping you understand how to turn it into a side income using online sources.

Maybe you’re worried about the longevity of your job. Or maybe you’ve recently been laid off. In either case, its time to start building for your own future.

1. Choose one thing that could help bring in an extra income stream. Maybe you love taking pictures. Maybe everyone raves about your brownies. Or maybe you love scrapbooking. Whatever your interest, there is a way to make money at it.

2. Look at your hobby and start coming up with ways other people make money at it. For instance, a photographer can take portraits of babies, sell their photographs to stock agencies, or create a line of greeting cards. Make your list and fill it with ideas.

3. Carefully evaluate your list. If baby portraits is on your list, but you don’t enjoy being around children, it’s probably not a great fit for you. As you narrow down your selections, circle ideas that truly make you happy.

4. Start finding mentors that can be guides for you. I’ve read hundreds of notes from people saying its impossible to make money as a stock photographer. Yet I know of quite a few who are making six figure incomes as stock photographers. Is anything possible? Definitely – if you put your mind to it. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers. Instead, find people who have done it, and follow in their footsteps.

5. The biggest mistake small business owners make is thinking they can do it all themselves. You can’t. Even if money is tight in the beginning, utilize all the tools available to you. For instance, one of the hottest topics right now is using social networking to grow your business. But if you don’t understand how to utilize the tools, you’ll be spinning your wheels and wasting your time for months or even years. Invest in training to get up and running in days; not weeks or months. My Social Networking Bootcamp is a great tool to get you on the road to success in just a few hours.

6. Choose one niche, and work it well. The problem with being online is, well, being online. I can easily come up with a hundred different ideas every day. One day I may be building a website – the next a blog. And the next day I may be off and running with a membership site. The only way to succeed online is to create an idea, put it into place, allow it to make money – and then duplicate it in another way. Stay true to your purpose until your purpose has a payoff.

7. Create a strategy. You can’t just hope money will start coming in. As a small business owner, you have to have goals and steps to achieve those goals all planned. The statistics show that people with a plan have a lot more success than people who don’t. Planning works because you have the numbers in front of you. I personally love putting check marks by the lines I accomplish. It makes me know I’m achieving my goals, and helps me see my results. Very important to those that are now working for themselves.

[Feel like you’re running around in circles every day without a plan? Maybe its time to put your business on the right track.]

I know I’ve had the same focus. I announced my latest Social Media course right before the holidays, and am excited to start teaching people how to use it to build up their businesses here in just a few days. Plus I have several other programs on the drawing board for early this year.

Anyway, even if I can’t attend the teleclass live, I enjoy listening to the recordings later, and possibly taking advantage of some amazing offers that people are putting together.

One mentor I’ve been following for years, Ali Brown, has put together a new Millionaire Protege Club, and had a special teleclass this past week. I finally listened to it over the weekend, and even through her free teleclass, I learned a ton that will help me over the weekend.

I have a long list of ideas that the call generated. But one thing really stuck out in my mind. She made a comment that only 6 percent of people will make over $100,000, and 1 percent make over $365,000.

Isn’t that amazing?

If you’ve been in the online world for any length of time, it’s easy to get caught up in the “I went from $0 to $1 million in 24 hours” pitch, and think the whole world is making a ton of cash.

But statistics show that just isn’t true.

One of the main differences between an entrepreneur and a self employed person is their focus. An entrepreneur puts the focus on building the business. The self employed person puts the focus on the tasks.

I run into business owners every day that focus on getting one more client to pay the bills. That’s fine if you have the desire to continually look for business. One will always lead to one. So you’ll always be in the same position you are in today.

But if you focus on building the business, and looking at how to get people in by the dozens rather than one at a time, you’ll see yourself grow in leaps.

Self Employed Mentality – cold calling to bring in one new client

Entrepreneur Mentality – hiring a cold calling firm to sell a training course on CD

Self Employed Mentality – creating a new business card to hand out while out networking

Entrepreneur Mentality – creating a social profile that markets your business online 24/7, whether you’re there or not

Is it easy to turn around the way you look at your business? No, it does take time. But make a choice to add a few things to your business this year that work for you, instead of you having to work for it.

[To learn all about Social Media and how it can grow your business, join me in Social Networking Bootcamp.]

Have you been doing that with your business?

If you’ve been in business for any length of time, how is your business? Are sales going up? Do you have new plans and new products?

Even just a year ago, we never could have predicted how the economy is today. Would we have believed that some of the biggest names in business would no longer be in business?

Yet so many people are continuing to market their same products and services in the exact same way. It’s worked for years; why won’t it work now?

To put it simply, it won’t work because times are different.

Over the weekend, we learned of a photographer who has been in business for over 20 years. He always had a studio filled with customers, and never really thought about marketing. Until now. Now he’s scrambling trying to market as best he can to make sure he can keep his business open this year. He’s let go of staff, and taken on all the work himself. And he’s looking for business anyway he can.

We also spoke with a photographer over the weekend who has continued to market year after year, building up a wonderful referral program that keeps new clients coming into his studio month after month. 2009 may be a record year for them – which is saying a lot after 25 years in business!

The first keeps doing things the same old way.

The second tries new things all the time. They consistently modify their programs to reach out to a new market. They know they’ll be around a long time because they adapt and change as the world changes around them.

How about you? Are you ready to learn something new?

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I’m starting up a brand new Social Media class in just a couple of weeks. Want to learn how social media can help you make money online in 2009? Sign up today – only 25 spots available.

In just a few decades, the majority of people went from working for themselves, to working for the corporation. We needed the worker-bees to help build for our future. And what a grand job they did.

Now I think we’re on the path to entrepreneurship all over again. How long until the majority of the population works for themselves instead of the corporation?

Think about the thousands of people being laid off from the corporation each week. These jobs are not just blue-collar type positions. These positions are across the board, affecting the top to the bottom.

Think about benefits packages. Employees are now taking more responsibility for health care and pension funds. And that trend will continue to rise.

Think about the need for specialization. I am an entrepreneur. Rather than hiring a full time person, we go out and find a person with specialized skills as we need them. Contractors are in huge demand if they are good at what they do.

Think about the number of full time employed people that are building businesses on the side, or taking in second and third jobs to make a living. They understand the need for diversification, and for spreading out the way they bring in their income.

I remember when I quit my “job” to go full time with our photography business back in the 1990’s. Everyone in my office wished me luck, and said they admired me for being such a risk taker. A risk taker?

Who’s the REAL risk taker: a person who builds his or her own business, and gains income from a variety of clients; or a person relying on his or her employer to pay them 100 percent of their income?

Chuck Blakeman with Team Nimbus West Tweeted it in a great way:

“Risky owning your business? It only takes one person to fire an employee; many customers would have to fire me. Who has the most  risk?”

So if you’re thinking of starting a business, either on the side while you continue working, or on a full time basis, congratulations!

Let the 21st century revolution begin.

photo source k yohsen